By: dbtechno

Six major tech companies including Google and Apple have admitted to creating secret agreements that they would not try to hire employees from each other, a move often referred to as poaching.

"The agreements challenged here restrained competition for affected employees without any procompetitive justification and distorted the competitive process," Molly S. Boast, deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, said in a statement released Friday afternoon. "The proposed settlement resolves the department's antitrust concerns with regard to these no solicitation agreements."

By: SIW EDITORIAL STAFF

Agency says new 'green' technologies appealing to information thieves

Following the indictment of a Michigan couple earlier this year for allegedly conspiring to steal trade secrets related to hybrid car technology from General Motors and sell them to a Chinese competitor, the FBI announced Friday that the case exemplifies the kinds of threats companies currently face related to information security.

Considering advancements in "green" technology, the FBI said in a statement that trade secrets on things like hybrid vehicles are becoming a hot commodity among thieves.

To read the complete article from SecurityInfoWatch.com, please click here.

By: Ben Fischer

National Events LLC of Chantilly asked a federal judge to halt a rally that a liberal political coalition is planning for Saturday on the National Mall, alleging the group publicized the local company's trade secrets while planning the event.

But the rally will go on as planned. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle denied National Events' request for a temporary restraining order against the One Nation Working Together rally this morning, a court official said. A formal ruling is forthcoming. The underlying lawsuit is still alive.

National Events, a general contractor and production company for large-scale entertainment and political rallies, asked for at least $950,000 in damages and an injunction stopping the rally.

In order to continue reading this article from Washington Business Journal, click here.

Six independent pharmacies in Texas are suing CVS Caremark for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations and trade secret misappropriation. The complaint also says CVS Caremark contracts requiring patients to buy maintenance medications only from CVS Caremark violate the Texas "Any Willing Provider" law.

The suit claims CVS Caremark violates the firewall between the retail pharmacy and the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) entities as required when the Federal Trade Commission approved the CVS and Caremark 2007 merger. Instead, the combined company built an information technology platform that straddles all of CVS Caremark's business segments, capturing in-depth patient data for marketing and other purposes in violation of HIPAA patient privacy laws.

To read the complete article from Business Wire, click here.

By: Columbia -Ideas at Work-

Secrecy is to hedge funds what secret sauce once was to Jack-in-the-Box: fund managers argue that the ingredients and precise amounts that make up their investment portfolios are intellectual property that, if publicly disclosed, would allow competitors to replicate their successes.

Hedge funds are exempt from most SEC disclosure rules for investment companies because they are not marketed to the general public and only certain qualified investors are permitted to invest in them. Until, that is, such funds reach $100 million or more in publicly traded equity, when disclosure requirements under section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 kick in.

Some hedge funds deliberately keep publicly traded equity holdings below the $100 million mark to avoid disclosure. But successful funds have a tendency to grow, and most inevitably surpass the $100 million baseline.

To keep reading this interesting article published in Morningstar, please click here.

By: Ashby Jones

In its Citizens United opinion from last year, the Supreme Court shot down certain campaign-finance limits. In so doing, the court essentially ruled that U.S. corporations have First Amendment free-speech rights.

Might the court take another step toward imbuing corporations with all the rights guaranteed U.S. citizens?

The high court agreed to hear a case involving AT&T to consider whether a corporation can challenge the release of government documents as an infringement of the company's privacy rights.

AT&T wants the FCC to keep secret all the information it gathered from the company during an investigation into its participation in the federal E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries get Internet access.

Please click here to read this article from The Wall Street Journal blog.

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., successfully represented Axsun Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of medical device company, Volcano Corporation (VOLC 24.21, -0.23, -0.94%) , in a trade secret case brought by LightLab Imaging, Inc. The Superior Court of Massachusetts rejected LightLab's claims for protection of five alleged trade secrets relating to laser technologies, and denied all of LightLab's requests for permanent injunctions. A trial on the remaining trade secrets has not yet been scheduled.

To read the complete article from BUSINESS WIRE, please click here.

By: MassDevice staff

Volcano Corp. wins the latest round of an ongoing legal battle with St. Jude Medical Inc.-owned LightLab Imaging Inc. as the Superior Court of Massachusetts rules against LightLabs' trade secret claims.

The Superior Court of Massachusetts rejected LightLab's claims for protection of five alleged trade secrets relating to laser technologies and denied all of the coronary imaging firm's requests for permanent injunctions, according to Volcano.

To read the complete article from Massdevice, please click here.

By: Richard Burnett

An Orlando federal judge has ruled that some former insiders of bankrupt Mirabilis Ventures Inc. did nothing wrong when they left the former private-equity firm to start another business, even as Orlando-based Mirabilis became ensnared in one of the largest payroll-tax frauds in U.S. history.

There was no evidence, the judge said, that the group, led by one-time Mirabilis President Frank Hailstones and Secretary-Treasurer Edith Curry, broke their employment contracts, took trade secrets or committed any other violations.

To read the complete article from The Orlando Sentinel, please click here.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Forty-four-year-old Hong Meng was sentenced Wednesday. He pleaded in June.

Authorities said Meng, whose work involved research on organic light emitting diodes, accepted a position at Peking University in China in 2009 without DuPont's knowledge. He then transferred information about DuPont's work with OLED displays to his Peking e-mail account and his personal computer.

To read the complete article from BusinessWeek, please click here.

By: Tom Ngo

It's not often Fedor Emelianenko makes a public appearance stateside, particularly when a fight's not looming. However, the planet's former/reigning top heavyweight recently hosted a seminar in Chatsworth, California to pass along some tricks of the trade to a few fortunate fanboys.

While their intentions are appreciated, it's highly unlikely as negotiations have lagged for several months to no avail. It's appearing as though he could become a free agent after the next time he takes the cage.

To read the complete article from 5thround, please click here.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Election Systems & Software has reached a settlement with a former employee and his consulting firm over trade secrets.

The Omaha company said in its lawsuit that Dalton and his Indiana firm were using copyrighted software to help state and local governments manage elections.

Please click on the link to access the complete article on BloombergBusinessweek

Associated Press

A woman accused of stealing trade secrets from Sioux Falls-based ethanol producer Poet says the lawsuit filed against her is the result of a misunderstanding.

Jodi Heath tells The Argus Leader newspaper that she has quit working for another company since learning of the suit. She also denies taking any confidential or proprietary information from Poet and says the lawsuit damages her reputation and ability to make a living.

To access the page that contains the Information from Argus Leader, click here.